What is the typical adult diet composition for walleye in their role as top predators?
Answer
Smaller fish species like shiners, suckers, perch, and alewives.
Adult walleye function as opportunistic, carnivorous predators within their ecosystems, playing a vital role in population balancing. Their diet overwhelmingly consists of smaller available fish species. The bulk of their caloric intake is typically derived from forage fish such as shiners, suckers, smaller perch, and alewives, depending entirely on the local availability within their specific water body. While the fry begin feeding on zooplankton, the mature fish transition quickly to piscivory, establishing themselves as significant consumers of juvenile and smaller adult fish populations.
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